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The student experience

The student experience

Nicole L. Craw, Michelle Tedford, Kasey Renee Shaw, Shannon Shelton Miller June 16, 2024

University of Dayton students in the arts have been thrilled with the new spaces at the Roger Glass Center for the Arts since its opening in January. UD Magazine spoke to several of them about how they're using the spaces and what's different about how they're finding creative inspiration. 

Trinity Rice '26Trinity Rice ’26
Music performance and theater major

As a singer, dancer and actor, Trinity Rice has performed throughout campus. She was a cabaret artist in A Night at the Cotton Club at Curran Place. For her junior recital, she sang in Sears Recital Hall. 

But then she stepped into the performance spaces at the Roger Glass Center for the Arts. She said she felt like they were created just for her — someone who loves the arts.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Rice, a transfer student who just finished her second year at UD.

For the We S.O.A.R. student showcase, students set up the experimental theater with the audience sitting on two sides, like in a basketball game.

“And then, for Godspell, we had it turned around to a thrust theater,” she said, with seating on three sides. “It was an interesting experience because we had to adapt where our focus needed to be so that all sides of the audience were included.”

She likened her first show to being a kid at a new theme park, exploring all the Glass Center had to offer. 

And there was a distinct advantage to being in the new building: While the cast was preparing for Godspell, they had the entire theater to themselves. 

“In the other spaces, like Sears Recital Hall and Boll Theatre, oftentimes you have to share the space with other groups like studio theater, or there would be a concert band or concert orchestra concert, so everyone had to share the space,” she said. “It was really nice that, for the period that we needed it, [the experimental theater] was just for Godspell.”

Her most stirring experience, though, she said happened next door in the concert hall during her recital: “It just felt really good to sing with my whole voice and then fill the space with it.” —M.T.

 

Ben Remke '24Ben Remke ’24
Theater major

Lighting designer Ben Remke could see the stage in his mind: As the dancers reached toward the heavens, a wash of light from above would illuminate each one. 

Problem was, there were only two moving lights above the entire Boll Theatre stage that could make such an effect. 

“It was the one moment of the show where I felt like it kind of fell flat because I wasn’t able to use everything I wanted,” he said of the show he designed his junior year. 

Remke, who graduated in May with a theater major specializing in lighting and stage management, had much more to work with this spring in the Roger Glass Center for the Arts as he designed the lights for the experimental theater performance of Godspell and the We S.O.A.R student showcase. 

So much, in fact, that he was able to program a light bridge that slowly materialized from the dark as the dancers took their steps forward. He used eight moving lights to create the dramatic effect that unfolded over a minute. 

“Everything’s LED, and everything can change color,” he said. “It’s an incredible palette that you get to work with in terms of the technology — and then going from only having two moving lights [in Boll Theatre] to up to 14 [in the Glass Center] really changes the game.”

Remke expects his work in both theaters on campus will prepare him well for his future. For example, he said, while LEDs are the newest trend, you can get some warm and colorful effects out of incandescent lighting still being used in many theaters. 

He is expecting just such a mix for his first professional job: The week after graduation, Remke headed to Galveston, Texas, to board a cruise ship for 196 days at sea as a lighting tech. —M.T.

 

Madeline Hodges '26Madeline Hodges ’26
Biology major

Madeline Hodges joined the orchestra, symphonic wind ensemble and French horn ensemble as a first-year UD student. She continued to perform in two ensembles during her sophomore year. As a biology major, Hodges said playing the French horn allows her to take a mental break from her studies and indulge in music. 

For most of her first two years at UD, however, that required her and other performers to squeeze into compact recital halls on campus, like Sears Recital Hall. She was thrilled to be among the first group of music students to perform at the new Roger Glass Center for the Arts when it opened in early 2024.

“Having the opportunity to play in such a nice new hall has not only improved my appreciation for playing an instrument but also motivated me to play to the best of my ability,” Hodges said. “I’m now able to look forward to and work toward concerts even more than before because we have the Roger Glass Center.”

Hodges is also thrilled future students will be able to enjoy the new center, and she hopes they won’t take it for granted. 

“Being able to perform in a true concert hall means as an ensemble we can portray our sound as best as possible,” Hodges said. “This gives us even more of a reason to work hard to produce an impactful performance since we now have the means to do so with such an amazing hall.” —S.S.M.

 

Jayonna Johnson '25Jayonna Johnson ’25
Photography major

Jayonna Johnson came to UD to create art. 

As a photography major, she uses her chosen medium to illuminate the things she sees in life and wants to know more about. She’s curious by nature, and her lens acts as her eyes to the world around her. 

“I am grateful to be a part of this community that embraces art in all forms,” she said.

Johnson spoke at the opening of the Roger Glass Center for the Arts about her many opportunities at UD — including experiential learning and internships — to enhance her skills and create art.

“[These opportunities] have given me the exposure as a young photographer to collaborate and engage in communities that value academic growth and creative expression — just like the new Roger Glass Center for the Arts will,” she said.

In May, Johnson’s work was featured in the Horvath Juried Student Exhibition, which recognizes outstanding student achievement in the visual arts. The show in the art gallery at the Glass Center featured her work “Revival,” an image that will be paired with a larger body of work she’s creating this summer for the Dean’s Summer Fellowship. 

“I was honored to share my work in such a beautiful space along with other artists, and to introduce viewers to my upcoming work,” she said.

During the next academic school year, Johnson hopes to host her own show in the new Glass Center gallery space, highlighting work that transforms the viewer. As a relatively young photographer, Johnson is eager to spend her senior year engaging with the greater Dayton community in collaboration and creative expression.

“The Roger Glass Center will be a steppingstone for artists on and off campus into a future where art and artists have more representation in the Dayton community,” Johnson said. —N.C.

 

Brayden Chayer '24Brayden Chayer ’24
Media production major

Brayden Chayer was so sad to go.

The media production major had helped put together the wish list of requests for the new Flyer Media studios in the Roger Glass Center for the Arts. They got just about everything they asked for — professional-grade cameras and sound equipment, a dedicated studio, a high-tech control room.

What didn’t they get? “A golf cart — that was more just for fun because we were complaining about the long walk,” he laughed.  

Chayer, who graduated in May after enjoying a few months in the Glass Center, is most impressed by the two classrooms that replace what students affectionately called the “fishbowl” in Kennedy Union. They now have 32 editing stations — instead of just eight — and the computers can link to TV monitors around the rooms, allowing students and professors to provide instant feedback. Chayer calls the space perfect for creative “cross-pollination.”

“I might be writing a script … and the chairs are wheely, so, I can spin around and get over to this computer and be like, ‘Hey, I need this edited.’ Or I can talk to my visual effects person and be like, ‘Hey, we want this graphic built. Can you build this?’ And to do that so quickly is amazing.”

This technology was vital for Chayer and the rest of his documentary film classmates as they were finishing up Funk: The Sound of Dayton. The project connected students with the community of greater Dayton and even got Chayer a dinner invitation at the home of funk legend Keith Harrison of Faze-O and his wife.

In April, the students premiered their work to an audience of more than 200 in the Glass Center’s concert hall — the ultimate test of their creativity and technology. 

“The premier was beautiful: the brand-new space, the sound in there — awesome,” he said. “It was truly the highlight of my college career.” —M.T.

 

Arts for all